


Marry the Man Today

by TriplePirouette



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Marriage Proposal, Skinny!Steve, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:20:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27194335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TriplePirouette/pseuds/TriplePirouette
Summary: Tumblr Ask Box fic. Prompt: Bucky trying to help Steve pop the question to Peggy and it goes all to hell [but funny]
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38





	Marry the Man Today

**Author's Note:**

> So, maybe not the comedy of errors you’re looking for, but here you go. Also, this is a Skinny!Steve/everybody lives story, set in post-war New York in the 40’s. (yes, they had some form of portable inhaler. I did a quick google) Also, I’m trying Bucky’s POV? I haven’t written from that before so… let me know if you think it works?

Bucky trailed behind them on the Coney Island boardwalk on the chilly October day, watching how Steve kept playing with the box in his jacket pocket and how Peggy seemed completely oblivious.

She was a spy for goodness sakes, how did she not know what Steve had been trying to do?

This was the last time, Steve had told him. There was persistence and then there was stupidity, his friend had said one night in desperation. She was a spy and there was no way she was as ignorant as she seemed to be: she was dodging his proposals on purpose. He would try one more time, then he broke it off. If she didn’t want to be with him for the long term, they were just wasting time.

Steve cleared his throat. He was going for it again. “Peg, how about we take a walk by the beach? We can meet up with Bucky for dinner?”

“Sounds good to me,” Bucky agreed with a big smile, leaning forward. “I gotta pick some things up for Ma, anyway.”

Peggy sighed, wrapping her arm around Steve’s. “I don’t think I’m up for it just now. I’ll be picking sand from my toes for days.”

Bucky watched Steve’s shoulders slump. His friend was crushed, and he wasn’t having any of it. “Fucking hell,” Bucky murmured, putting his hands on their shoulders, stopping them and turning them so they faced him, surprised. Bucky thrust his hand in Steve’s pocket, pulling out the box and holding it out towards Peggy. “Will you just marry him already?”

Peggy’s eyes grew comically wide, her mouth falling open. “What?”

“The dumb lug’s been trying to ask you for a month. I know you’re not that bad of a spy.” Bucky set his mouth in a hard line, opening the box and showing her the delicate ring inside. “Why do you keep dodging him?”

Peggy’s chin could only bob up and down, stammering, “Wha-what?”

Steve, for his part, looked mortified and tried to swipe the ring. “Buck- stop. It’s not what she wants.”

That, somehow, snapped Peggy back to reality. In Bucky’s maneuver to keep the ring from Steve it brought it closer to her and she snatched the box from his palm. “She most certainly does!” Peggy answered harshly. “What do you mean dodging?”

Bucky set his hands on his hips, eyes intent on her. “You’re telling me you haven’t noticed him trying to propose for over a month now?”

Peggy looked back and forth between Steve and Bucky, hands wrapped protectively around the closed ring box. She settled her gaze on Steve. “A month?”

Steve looked at the ground, scuffing his foot in the dirt. “Yeah.” He swallowed hard. “I just figured, if you hadn’t let me do it by now, you didn’t want to marry me.”

“Crikey O’Reilly!” She set her hands on her hips, leaning in to him, “I have not seen hide nor hair of a potential proposal from you, Steve, and if you think for one second I wouldn’t marry you we have to have a quite long discussion about that.”

“What about just now?” Bucky put his hand on Steve’s shoulder. “You said 'no' to a romantic walk on the beach.”

“It’s cold and wet and sandy and I have made it very clear in the past I do not like those things put together, so of course I didn’t say I wanted to go.” Peggy’s eyes blazed at Bucky. “Not quite romantic if the person being proposed to doesn’t enjoy the proposal, is it?”

Steve’s head bobbed side to side in acquiescence before he looked up at Bucky. “To be fair, she’s right. I know she doesn’t like the beach.”

“Ha!” Peggy pointed a finger a Bucky in victory before turning back to Steve. “What did he mean ‘a month’?”

Steve shrugged. “First time was at Luigi’s. I thought it was pretty romantic, and you seemed to be having a good time, but then right before dessert you basically ran out.”

“First off, we’ve had dinner at Luigi’s many times and at no time have I been proposed to nor did I have any reason to think you’d do so. Secondly,” she blushed a bit. “The clams were off. I rushed home and spent a lovely night in the loo.”

“That’s…. perfectly valid.” Bucky ruled. “But what about the fountain in central park?”

Peggy looked back up at Bucky, frustrated. “What about it?”

“Steve said you couldn’t wait to leave.” Bucky looked down at his best friend, wrapping his arm around his shoulder in solidarity. “That’s a perfectly romantic spot.”

“We were being attacked by pigeons.” Peggy looked at Steve. “You can’t tell me you thought that was a good idea.”

Steve’s cheeks turned pink as he remembered trying to convince her to stay despite the dive-bombing animals, attempting to get at the crumbs of bread a child kept spilling in circles around the fountain. “I panicked, didn’t have a plan B.”

Bucky stepped away and walked in a little circle, rolling his eyes. “You didn’t tell me about the pigeons, Stevie.” This was getting harder by the second.

“Ok, well,” Steve looked up, suddenly brazen, “what about at the Stork Club last week? It was our anniversary and I told you I was taking you out for a special night.”

Peggy frowned at him. “Doesn’t get much more special when a bartender blew my cover from an operation last month to the mobster who was upstairs and we had to run for our lives. When exactly did I dodge a proposal there, hum?” She smiled at him. “After I had to shoot the muscle using his own gun or just before I turned my ankle because I was running in high heels for my life?”

Bucky stepped between them, waving his hands. “Ok, look. All valid points, Peggy. But haven’t you noticed the kid carrying that massive jewelry box in his pocket? It stands out like tumor on him!”

Peggy looked at it in her hand. “How was I supposed to know it was a jewelry box?” She looked incredulously between the two men. “It was a bump in your coat. I thought you’d gotten one of the new inhalers we’d talked about. You were so wheezy and anxious and you kept playing with it and… oh. Oh.” Realization dawned on her at all the little signs she’d missed the last month.

“Yeah. Oh.” Bucky mocked. He took a deep breath and pulled the jewelry box from her hands. “Ok, let’s do this. Right here, right now.”

“Buck- come on.” Steve shook his head, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Now it’s just…”

“Nope. This is the best you’re gonna get, stupid.” Bucky handed him the ring then pushed down on his shoulder until he was on one knee. “The two of you are hopeless together.”

Bucky watched Steve stammer through his rehearsed proposal, and watched Peggy slowly melt from angry to soft and happy as she said yes and Steve put the ring on her finger. For his part, Bucky was sure this wasn’t the last time he’d have to intervene with these two idiots.


End file.
